If you're looking for instrumental talent -- to take over and experience -- there are really only three places to find it.
One is down at the freshman level. There are a lot of up-and-coming string players in the ninth grade class, the two most promising (by acclimation) being Helen Kim and Taylor Smith. You have to wonder what Chelsea would say about that, though. It would be hard for her, in either her own face or Chen's, to hang out with a freshman girl.
Nathan Cruz, the first-chair violinist, is the most dominant personality in the orchestra. In Yumi's opinion, he's a supercilious snot, but maybe he's earned the right to be. Besides leading the ensemble, he leads the smaller Westside Chamber Orchestra, which plays an even more demanding repertoire, and he also took the lead in creating the Wendigo String Quartet, which is the classical music equivalent of the garage bands. Besides the classical repertoire that it plays at snooty social wingdings (for very good money, you've heard) it plays avante-garde pieces when possible, which gives it a radical cachet in certain circles.
And besides that, Nathan is on the school swim team and used to date Kendra Saunders. Maybe with Chelsea's help -- or with another mask -- you could rekindle that relationship.
But if you want to experience true musical excellence, you doubt you could do any better than to get behind a mask of Preston Spinks. He's not the kind of prodigy that gets press attention, but he is the kind of prodigy who wins national competitions against dozens of other prodigies drawn from all over North America. He has even collaborated with a professional orchestra, at their invitation, to record and release a short album. He is also academically gifted, having semi-transcended the AP program to take classes at the local university for high school credit.
He's not a dick, either, in Yumi's experience. He has a very serious demeanor but is friendly in a slightly distant way. He has no girlfriend, despite being quite good-looking though, and that has sparked rumors about his sexuality. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as they say, particularly in the arts world.
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